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Dalits break caste barrier, enter 120-year-old Tamil Nadu temple

[email protected] (TNN)
October 1, 2012
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Coimbatore, October 1: It was a defining moment for Coimbatore's dalits when several of them entered the 120-year-old Mariamman temple at Kalapatti for the first time on Sunday with the support of the Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front (TNUEF) and CPM activists.

Located 5km away from Coimbatore airport, the temple had been out of bounds for dalits until now. Around 2,000 families from the Arunthathiyar community live in this area. More than 1,500 dalits and an equal number of CPM activists gathered at Kalapatti Bazaar at 11am and took out a huge procession before entering the temple premises. Police provided security to the dalits and party workers.

There was no resistance from upper caste Hindus and the temple priest also cooperated with the protesters. He distributed sacred ash to all those gathered, breaking the shackles on customs that were more than a century old.

Coimbatore MP P R Natarajan and TNUEF president P Sambath, who led the dalits' march to the sanctum sanctorum, said that discrimination against any community would not be allowed in the temple any more. "The Mariamman temple has been under the administrative control of the department of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) since 1971. The HR&CE Act empowers any community to enter and worship, but untouchability prevailed despite the law." he said.

TNUEF had staged many demonstrations in the city seeking government intervention in the issue. As the authorities failed to act, they decided to resolve the issue themselves. "It is a matter of shame for the state that untouchability existed at a temple situated in an urban area. It is not unusual to find such discrimination in remote interiors," said Sambath.

"About three years ago, a dalit was brutally attacked in Kalapatti for sitting next to a caste Hindu in a bus. There was no opposition against caste discrimination at the temple because the Arunthathiyar community felt it was their fate," he said.

"The government claims there is no untouchability in the state. We have witnessed it with our own eyes. We initiated measures to eradicate such discrimination in Erode, Salem, Vellore and Pudukottai on Sunday , the 'Memorial Day' for Srinivasa Rao who fought for equality," said a leader, UK Sivagnanam.


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News Network
January 15,2020

Mumbai, Jan 15: A relative of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was killed and three others injured when their car met with an accident on Mumbai-Nashik highway, police said on Wednesday.

The mishap took place at Sinnar in Nashik on Tuesday night when the CM's sister-in-law Vina Karande and six other relatives were returning from Shirdi in a sports utility vehicle (SUV), Nashik (Rural) Superintendent of Police Aarti Singh said.

The car driver apparently lost control over the wheels, following which the vehicle overturned on a roadside while passing through a narrow bridge, located around 190 km from here, the official said.

They were rushed to a hospital in Nashik where Ajay Karande, husband of Vina Karande, died during treatment, the official said.

The three others were undergoing treatment at the hospital, the police said, adding that their condition was reported to be out of danger.

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Agencies
January 16,2020

New Delhi, Jan 16: Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat on Thursday said that he supported a negotiated peace deal between the US and Taliban in Afghanistan.

Gen. Rawat was speaking along with other world leaders at Raisina dialogue organised by India's influential think-tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF).

Arguing that terrorism was going to stay in the world as long as states were going to use it against other states, he said it was important to prevent states from using terrorism as a "proxy war".

"The only way to deal with it was what the US did post 9/11," he said, adding that the war against terror was necessary.

However, now a peace deal with Taliban is required, Gen. Rawat said.

"It must be a negotiated peace deal so that the Taliban stops using terrorism," he added. Hinting that the US should maintain its presence in Afghanistan, the CDS said that though Afghan security forces are now equipped to fight back terror groups in Afghanistan but they still need support.

The newly appointed CDS officially confirmed that India has shifted its stance on Taliban. India has traditionally been opposed to the Pakistan-backed Taliban in Afghanistan. Thousands of Afghans were given refuge in India when they fled the country due to oppression and terrorism of the Taliban regime. India is in alignment with the democratically elected government in Kabul that the Taliban remains supported by Pakistan.

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News Network
June 30,2020

New Delhi, Jun 30: Amid calls for boycotting Chinese products after India-China face-off in eastern Ladakh, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government claiming that imports from China have increased under the NDA regime.

"Facts don't lie. BJP says: Make in India. BJP does: Buy from China," Gandhi tweeted along with a graphic of the percentage of imports from China during the UPA rule and the NDA government.

The graphic claims that imports from China were at 12-13 per cent when the Congress-led UPA government vacated office in 2014 but now stood at 17-18 per cent in 2020.

The Congress leader has been vehemently targeting the Centre on the India-China border situation after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in violent face-off with Chinese troops in Ladakh's Galwan valley earlier this month.

Indian intercepts have revealed that the Chinese side suffered 43 casualties, including dead and seriously injured, in the face-off.

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